| Title | Good News for Unmarried Couples—Cohabitation is Good for You | |
| Date | Wednesday August 12 2015, @08:02PM | |
| Author | cmn32480 | |
| Topic | ||
| from the so-I-didn't-have-to-get-married??? dept. | ||
a new study published in AJPH indicates that adults who are cohabitating have midlife health outcomes that are similar to adults in formal marriages. So in terms of the benefits specific to marriage, we can probably strike "longer, healthier life" from the list.
The study in question used 10,000 subjects from the British national Child Development Study, a birth cohort study that includes all people born in Britain during one week in March 1958. Participants were able to select their partnership status as married, cohabitating, or single. Health was measured using blood and inflammatory biomarkers, as well as respiratory capacity. The researchers controlled for previous socioeconomic status, previous health status, educational attainment, income, employment, and other demographic variables.
The study's results varied by gender. Among men, those who had never married/cohabitated displayed poorer overall health than men who were married during the observation period. By contrast, not marrying or cohabitating had less of a detrimental effect on women than on men. For women, the timing of the marriage mattered. Those who were married in their late 20s or early 30s had the overall best health, beating out both women who had married in their early 20s and women were never married/cohabitating.
Does co-habitating with cats or dogs count?
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printed from SoylentNews, Good News for Unmarried Couples—Cohabitation is Good for You on 2024-05-16 13:53:15